Sinclair ZX Printer restoration
Alongside with all the Sinclair stuff I’ve had acquired recently, there was also a Sinclair ZX Printer.
Which…of course didn’t work. Here’s a pic AFTER it being repaired. I don’t have any prior to repairing it.
Testing it out with both the earlier fixed ZX 81 and Spectrum – see the old posts 😉
What was it?
Testing it made it pretty clear it it was making any traction. I figured the belt was broken. And, in fact, by opening it the belt was…more micro plastics by now. A full recap would also be the nice touchup. But that’s become boring now.
Easy fix…right?
Not quite likely. I also took the chance of recapping, and cleaning things up a little in between. Although, I couldn’t find any replacement belt. Some UK guy used to make them, but he didn’t have any spare left. And I don’t have either a 3D printer, nor anyone who I know had one.
What now?
I’ve tried to find some 3D printer model ready to be fetched, and I was lucky enough to find one [0]. And then…up to find a 3D printing soul out there.
And off we go for the 3D Printing guy
Recently I bought some D-PAD replacement for a Sega Master System controller, and additionally, one also for a Sega Mega Drive. So, I gave it a shot asking the guy if he could 3D print the [0] model, and he did! So, right now there is at least 1 supplier in EU, specifically in my same area (Italy) who can provide this. Don’t miss your chance to grab one, it just WORKS
‘ght, print test, one, two, and to the four
OK computer [2], is this thing working?
Sup it replied!
Still, being the (aluminized) paper the original from the era (genuine), it was not exactly a nice printing. Figure, the printer itself was not but a cheap machine to print out code from the computer itself using SPARKS [3].
Although, EHEH BOI, it worked.
Links
[0] https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4822567
[1] https://ebay.us/m/NIdcHS
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK_Computer
[3] https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/35322/Sinclair-ZX-Printer/
Extra
Since we are here talking, I would like to sponsor the nfggames.com [4] forum, which comes from gamesx.com [5] . I’ve been abusing of the site for so many years, and I wanted to contribute just recently there by posting the 3D model on the forum.
[4] https://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=7625.msg51234
[5] https://gamesx.com/